Black carbon has a warming effect in the atmosphere three to four times greater than prevailing estimates, according to a review study in the journal Nature Geoscience.
According to the study, by Professor V. Ramanathan and G. Carmichael of UC San Diego, black carbon causes a warming effect in the atmosphere of about 0.9 watts per meter squared. That compares to estimates of between 0.3 watts per meter squared of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Black carbon could have as much as 60% of the current global warming effect of carbon dioxide (CO2), more than that of any greenhouse gas besides CO2.
Black carbon results from burning of fossil fuel and biomass, such as forests, firewood, dung and crop residue. Earlier estimates do not take into account the warming effect when black carbon is mixed with other aerosols, especially at altitudes of 2 kilometers (6,500 feet), where black carbon particles absorb not only sunlight but also solar energy reflected by clouds at lower altitudes.
Between 25% and 35% of black carbon in the global atmosphere comes from China and India, resulting from the burning of wood, coal and cow dung, much of which takes place in household cooking and heating of homes. In rural India, where 70% of India's population lives, cooking alone accounts for about 60% of the overall energy use and 80% of the non-commercial energy use. Cooking in rural India is mostly done by burning fire wood (78%) and cow-dung (14%). Countries in Europe that rely heavily on diesel fuel for transportation also contribute large amounts.
Professor Ramanathan is one of the driving forces behind Project Surya, which distributes solar cookers in India.
References:
Black Carbon Pollution Emerges as Major Player in Global Warming - UC SanDiego News Center
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/03-08BlackCarbonPollution.asp
Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon - Nature Geoscience
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v1/n4/pdf/ngeo156.pdf
Project Surya - V. Ramanathan and K. Balakrishnan
http://www-ramanathan.ucsd.edu/Surya-WhitePaper.pdf
Assessing Household Solid Fuel Use - World Health Organization - Environmental Health Perspectives • VOLUME 114 | NUMBER 3 | March 2006
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1392231&blobtype=pdf
Related articles by Sam Carana:
Introducing Solar Cooking to the World
An 80% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020
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Comments: 18
And then there's also the fresh water in the North Atlantic and the thicker ice in the north east side of Canada, because that water vapor came down as snow which will cause the Gulf Stream to sink faster than normal, thus cooling down northern Europe, which appears to be happening also now.
If you think pinwheels and solar cells are going to provide enough energy than you are living in fantasy land.
Given that so many children are not completing high school, how could any of them be expected to understand the truth about anything.
To me the liberal left has created a school system that ensures large numbers of ignorant minds that are easily manipulated by unscrupulous liars like Al Gore who have their own personal agenda to fulfill.
I lived twelve years down along Connecticut shoreline, at first I didn't really notice any abundance of wild life. BUT, after the state began seeding the oyster beds with shells for oyster larvae to attach themselves, things went crazy. I saw school of bunkers fleeing Bluefish, I saw Cormarants drying their wings ,screeching piping plovers, egrets by the dozen, an endangered species and they were in large numbers on our shore, then there was the harbor seal that was sunning himself on shore one day, horseshoe crabs....point is it isn't all bad news out there and this man made Global warming Hoax is just that a hoax.
The planet cycles, we have thousands of years of historical records to prove this , yet the ignorant masses , indoctrinated by agenda driven left wing liberal teachers have all these drones ready to believe any line of crap fed to them.
Keith, global warming isn't a hoax. The necessary changes also make good economic sense, not bad sense: Solar Energy now cheaper than Coal.
I just spoke to a senior member of the National Science Foundation two weeks ago who said that Global Warming is now accepting by an overwhelming majority of scientists. Do you really know better, or is this your politics speaking?
As for pinwheels, you can read about entire countries than are working on running off wind power and other renewable power (solar, hydroelectric, geothermal), for example Germany, Spain, England, the Netherlands and Costa Rica. And Texas
(that's almost a country, isn't it?). And California
(that's almost a country, isn't it?).
The only thing stopping us is us! I hope the links all worked.
Also see the following to get professional installation of solar and wind power at your home and/or office and join the solution: GoGreenSolar.com - #1 online destination for solar panels & wind power!
Here is a fact you probably don't think is true but is, the United States for all its urban and suburban sprawl and infrastructure actually has developed only 5% of its land mass. 5%, that's it.
These left wing anarchists having convinced so many people of their perspective are having hard time reconciling the cooling trend that has occurred over the last 8 years, with this being one of the coldest winters in recent times. One which saw all the "damage" of thinning polar sea ice regaining all its thickness and exceeding thicknesses previously measured. A winter that drop more snow on North America since the 1960's, a winter that devastated parts of Southern China with brutal snow storms, a winter where snow fell on Baghdad for the first time ever.
Sorry but Global Warming alarmists are just plain stupid people looking for a cause to give meaning to their lives and in the end they are causing greater harm to humanity than they even know.
This crap about ethanol being used for fuel is depleting food supplies to the poorer countries and skyrocketing the costs of everything, all this caused by one man with a misguided mission, a lie, a hoax and millions are suffering because of it.
Have a nice day the "cause " you support is causing pain and suffering around the globe and its all based on a lie.
Dialog is always good, and is better between people who don't agree, because somebody might learn something. However, it doesn't appear that you read any of the articles I or anyone else supplied, which is unfortunate for the quality of the discussion. I'd be happy to supply my definition of weather vs. climate if you would like to learn about the difference.
"The Reality is" that even if you ignore global warming entirely, it is easy to justify, for national security and pollution reasons, all of the alternative energy approaches like wind and solar and geothermal and hydroelectric power (or is Hoover Dam a liberal anarchist conspiracy?). Actually, here is what the US government says about hydroelectric power from Hoover Dam. Not a liberal anarchist organization at all.
Quote from the US government's site linked to above:
"Hoover Dam provides generation of low-cost hydroelectric power for use in Nevada, Arizona, and California. Hoover Dam alone generates more than 4 billion kilowatt-hours a year - enough to serve 1.3 million people. From 1939 to 1949, Hoover Powerplant was the world's largest hydroelectric installation; today, it is still one of the country's largest.
Hydroelectricity is a clean, renewable source of energy that does not result in air pollution, chemical runoff, or toxic waste disposal."
Best wishes.
Meanwhile all this supposed do-gooding has as usual when the leftists come to the table with their twisted logic, we have millions of people scrambling for food because now corn is a big commodity to create un-needed ethanol.while we have billions of barrels of oil sitting there in our territory waiting for us to use and at the same time take control of this market and collapse this ridiculous upward spiral of energy costs.
I can't believe every 20 years we have to go through this stupidity of the liberal mindset gaining control of ignorant minds, creating disgusting chaos and then we have to squash you goobers and bring sanity back to the forefront.
This election year so reminds me of when Nixon ran for office, I guess McCain will will over 40 states , be a crappy President and hopefully his successor will be the real President we so desperately need at this moment in time.
Keith, the IPCC isn't a "left-wing anarchist" movement. Even John McCain has agreed (for over a year now) that the debate has ended, that the IPCC has put the final nail in denial's coffin, that global warming is a problem caused by human activity, and that we must act now. I see no reason to repeat all the research here that has been done by bodies such as the IPCC. If you have anything to say, please do so in a way that makes sense.
Lemmings, all who follow this nonsense are lemmings. Even the creator of the Weather Channel has been very vocal about how this is a hoax.
So many fear losing their freedoms and civil liberties in this war of terrorism and yet will hand them over in the name of Global Warming.
I advocate a framework of FeeBates as the most effective way to deal with global warming. Fees on emissions, funding rebates on local supply of better alternatives, also respect the freedom of the individual, optimize consumer choice and encourage market mechanisms to select the most workable responses.
By contrast, you disrespect the rights of victims of climate change. Your position violates the rights of the millions of people who are harmed by pollution and who will be harmed even more in future. Your comments are not helping the position of whoever you believe to be supporting or whatever political or industrial group you may be part of.
To piggy-back on your article, I thought you and your readers might be interested in an environmental event that is coming up.
On October 27, 2008 at 10am CST Professor Mario J. Molina, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, will conduct the next lecture in the Honeywell Nobel Minds Laureate Lecture series. The lecture will focus on climate change as one of the most serious environmental challenges facing society in the 21st century. The seminar will be given at Tecnológico de Monterrey, in Monterrey, Mexico.
The LIVE webcast can be viewed at: www.honeywellscience.com
Professor Molina will explore how global emissions of these gases can be significantly reduced through an international agreement at a cost that is smaller than that related to the damages resulting from climate change.
Professor Molina has been involved in developing our scientific understanding of the chemistry of the stratospheric ozone layer and its susceptibility to human-made perturbations. More recently, Professor Molina has been involved with the chemistry of air pollution of the lower atmosphere, and with science-policy issues related to the global climate change problem. He has received numerous awards for his scientific work including the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the Tyler Ecology and Energy Prize in 1983 and the UNEP-Sasakawa Award in 1999.
I hope everyone can "tune in" to the webcast--it should be highly informative!
Best,
Hannah
The study, led by Örjan Gustafsson, from Stockholm University in Sweden, indicates that burning wood and animal dung is a major contributor to the brown haze and that switching from wood burning to solar-powered stoves, or gas, would significantly diminish the brown haze. "The effect would be large and quick – improving air quality and reducing global warming," Gustafsson says. The soot in brown haze is carcinogenic and linked to the deaths of millions of people in China and India from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. [Source: New Scientist].
As the above Wikipedia image shows, sulfate has a dimming effect that partially masks the global warming impact of greenhouse gases.
Many aerosol particles suspended in the atmosphere have a cooling effect, since they scatter sunlight away from the Earth and also act as seeds for cloud formation, explains the Royal Society of Chemistry.
However, continues the report, soot aerosols, or 'black carbon' - which make up 10 to 50 per cent of the particles in the lowest portion of Earth's atmosphere - absorb sunlight, contributing to global warming. And when associated with other atmospheric pollutants, such as sulfate, soot's absorbing power seems greater.
Researchers at Texas A&M University mimicked tropospheric conditions in the laboratory to discover what happens to soot particles as they age in the Earth's atmosphere. 'We found that sulfuric acid accumulates on soot aerosols and gives them a coating that significantly enhances their atmospheric effects,' says Renyi Zhang, who led the research team. 'The implications of this study are profound - on climate, air pollution, human health and cloud formation.'
The potent 'acid soot' forms when sulfur dioxide, which is responsible for acid rain, comes into contact with particles of carbon produced by fossil fuel burning. The acidified soot particles are much larger and trap twice as much heat as normal soot.
Short-lived pollutants such as soot and precursors to ozone have a dramatic impact on global warming. Measures to reduce such pollutants, as proposed in a recent UNEP report, could reduce warming in the Arctic in the next 30 years by two-thirds, as well as avoid 2.4 million premature deaths and result in 1% to 4% higher crop yield.